


i had to find you

by LiteraLi



Category: Arrow (TV 2012)
Genre: F/M, Fluff and Angst, Hurt/Comfort, Light Angst, Post-Episode: s08e04 Present Tense, post 8x04
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-18
Updated: 2019-11-18
Packaged: 2021-02-12 19:15:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,861
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21481453
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LiteraLi/pseuds/LiteraLi
Summary: “So,” Felicity starts, and even though tears are already forming in her eyes at the sound of her husband’s voice, she tries to keep it light, “when exactly were you planning on telling me that our ADULT CHILDREN showed up from the FUTURE?”Felicity-centric post-8x04 missing scene.
Relationships: Oliver Queen/Felicity Smoak
Comments: 18
Kudos: 206





	i had to find you

**Author's Note:**

> Posting before 8x05 airs tomorrow, to help fill the Felicity sized hole left after 8x04 (and the episodes prior)!  
All mistakes are my own. Hope you enjoy!
> 
> Title taken from 'The Scientist', because how could I not?!

“Pick up, pick up, pick up,” Felicity mutters while the phone rings, pacing back and forth with a sleeping Mia snuggled to her chest in a baby wrap. The three-month-old had been particularly fussy lately (read: since Oliver left) and some nights, like tonight, she refused to fall asleep unless she was being held. Felicity’s mind races while she waits for the call to connect, mulling over all the information she has.

Felicity had first sensed something weird was going on a few days ago, when Oliver completely vanished from where she had last tracked him in Nanda Parbat and she noticed some weird energy surges back in Star City near the bunker. However, in between setting up all her electronics while trying to stay off the grid, and searching the freakin’  _ multiverse _ for her husband - not to mention taking care of a tiny human who was completely dependent on her - well, yes, it had taken her several days to figure out what was going on.

But then finally, earlier today, she had managed to get a secure connection to the bunker footage as well as the security system she had left in their old apartment. And what she saw on her screen had astonished her. What she  _ thinks _ she saw was Oliver back in Star City...with grown-up versions of William and Mia. Plus a handsome young man named Connor who said he was the Diggle’s son?

At first, she thought she must be going crazy. Besides the fact that the idea of their grown-up kids time traveling here from the future was  _ insane _ , wouldn’t Oliver have called to tell her? But then again, with the lives they led and the things they’d discovered about the multiverse...was it really that out of the realm of possibility? Hence the much-needed phone call. From her feed of the apartment a few minutes earlier, it looked like future!Mia and future!William were asleep, but Oliver was still cleaning up in the kitchen. She holds her breath and wills him to answer.

She and Oliver hadn’t spoken on the phone at all since he had left. She had given him numerous burner phones, but they had agreed that they would only call in case of an emergency, as not to take any chances of her and Mia’s location being traced. There were numerous texts shot back and forth each day (once Oliver had returned from Earth-2) but they were purposely short, cryptic and immediately deleted (_j fnd me, ty. miss u. hk. safe. spdy says hi. <3 u,m._). The lack of communication was unbearably hard, but if she actually spoke to him on the phone each day, had to say goodbye over and over while never knowing if it could be the last time she ever spoke to him - she’s not sure she could survive it. However, if the situation right now didn’t count as an emergency, she doesn’t know what would. If those really were  _ their kids _ , keeping them safe was the top priority and she deserved to know.

She’s overwhelmed and nervous as the phone rings. The connection is secure, she’s sure of it. But if he does answer...she’s not sure she’ll ever be able to hang up. There’s a click as the call is accepted and the connection is established, and her breath catches, heart beating oh-so-fast under her baby girl’s little fists.

“ _ Felicity _ ,” Oliver says her name in that way of his that makes her feel so loved and adored.  _ Fe-li-ci-ty _ . 

“So,” Felicity starts, and even though tears are already forming in her eyes at the sound of her husband’s voice, she tries to keep it light, “when exactly were you planning on telling me that our ADULT CHILDREN showed up from the FUTURE?” Mia squirms against her chest and Felicity chides herself internally for using Loud Voice, and sways a little bit until the infant settles.

“I wanted to call you, I swear,” Oliver insists, “but William said we should figure out what was going on first, and, you know, he’s pretty smart so I listened to him but you’re right, I should have -”

“Holy frack.  _ William.” _ She hadn’t completely believed up until now that what she thought was going on was _actually_ going on. “So those really are...grown-up Mia and William..?”

“ _ Yes _ ,” Oliver breathes, “I still can’t wrap my head around it either. I mean - one second I was saying goodbye to Thea in Nanda Parbat and the next thing I know, there’s a flash of light and we’re all there in the bunker and a girl I don’t know but do is calling me ‘Dad’ and a thirty-something-year-old William is hugging me and there’s a man named Connor who’s apparently Ben Turner’s son that John is going to adopt one day…”

Felicity knows all this, she’s seen the footage, but listening to Oliver tell it, she is astounded all over again and it really starts to sink in. She takes a deep breath and sits down in Oliver’s favorite armchair, checking that Mia is still asleep. There’s another version of Mia sleeping in their old apartment in Star City - how is this even  _ possible _ ? Her mind is spinning, trying to make sense of everything.

"Hey, switch over to video, honey, will you? I want to see you." She blames pregnancy brain for not doing that from the start.

She holds the phone out at an angle and breaks out in a teary smile as Oliver's face comes into focus. His handsome, scruffy, shaggy-haired face. He looks a lot more like he did when they got married, a look she appreciated a lot more than the ‘I just got released from prison’ style he sported all of last year.

"I  _ missed  _ you," she whispers, tears threatening to fall.

"Is that me or my facial hair you're talking to?" He chides, but his eyes are watery too. "I miss you too.  _ So _ much."

They just stare at each other for a while, taking each other in, memorizing every detail, neither one of them daring to talk. But Felicity’s neurons are still firing at lightning speed with all of this new information.

“Hey, wait a second,” Felicity finally breaks the silence as she thinks of something, “How do you know they are who they say they are? I mean, they could be from a different earth or be impersonated by aliens...and  _ how _ did they even get here? Did the Legends bring them back? Did they time travel here for a reason, to change something - ?”

“Felicity,” Oliver chuckles, obviously amused at how her brain is working a mile a minute, “I have no idea if they’re from a different earth. And we don’t know how they got here, but I suspect it was the Monitor’s doing. We’re not so sure we trust him anymore, by the way -”

“Wha-” Felicity tries to get out but Oliver continues.

“But what I do know without a doubt is that those are one hundred percent our children from the year 2040. I mean, William is  _ exactly  _ the same. He acts and talks the same way and he looks just as you’d imagine. We’re the same age, isn’t that  _ crazy _ ? He has his own billion-dollar tech company, and he...he came out to me, Felicity.” Oliver’s eyes glisten and his voice is soft as he tells her the last part.

“Oh,  _ Oliver _ …” Felicity doesn’t know what to say, she knows how much this means to Oliver, how much it means to  _ them _ . “I can’t even imagine...I’m so glad you got that moment with him.” In the back of her mind, she realizes the only reason why future!William would be coming out to present!Oliver but she pushes that thought away. 

“Me too,” Felicity's heart warms when he beams with pride. Oliver continues, “And then there’s  _ Mia _ .” He says her name the same way he did when they chose it, so softly and full of love.  _ Mi-a _ . “She is, without a doubt, our daughter, Felicity. She is beautiful, she looks just like you, and she’s also stubborn, headstrong and a little rough around the edges.”

“Wonder where she gets that from,” Felicity laughs quietly and Oliver smirks. “I still can’t believe any of this is real. I wish I was there with you...but I guess we should try and stick with the number one rule of time travel - not coming in contact with your past self. If grown-up Mia met baby Mia, I don’t know what would happen…”

“That’s exactly what William said. Did I mention he was a genius? You would be so proud. He also said we should try not to change the past, I mean, his past, too much. That’s why I hadn’t called. But I  _ was _ going to tell you, honest. Especially since William changed his mind and told us everything about the future. Plus Laurel, Dinah and Rene know too, and you deserved to know before them.”

“Right, I saw them in the bunker feed. So basically, Rene and Dinah know now about Mia? Like, about present, baby, sleeping in my arms Mia?”

“Well, yes,” Oliver answers, and then looks down sheepishly. “And I kind of also told Tatsu, and Thea. Plus there’s a chance my mom from Earth-2 noticed her in the picture I took with me, but she’s gone along with the rest of Earth-2, so it’s not like she’s going to tell anyone…”

“Okay, we are going to circle back to what you just said about Earth-2. But do you mean to tell me that while I’ve been hiding away here all alone with our daughter - who we are trying to keep a secret in order to protect - you’ve been gallivanting around the world telling everyone about her?!”

Oliver hangs his head apologetically. “Only to people we can trust, honey, I promise. I just miss her so much and I  _ had _ to tell them, to explain to them why I’m on this journey. And it wasn’t exactly my choice to tell the rest of the team, they just happened to be there when the kids showed up. I’m sorry.”

Felicity’s anger deflates a little when she hears Oliver talk about missing his baby girl. She’s not really that mad, she just wishes she could  _ do something _ and she especially wishes she could be with the rest of her family.

“Here,” she says, tilting her phone down so that Mia comes into frame, “she’s all bundled up and sleeping but you can still see her profile.”

Oliver’s breath catches, he clearly was not prepared to see her like this. “She’s changed so much...I’ve missed so much…” His eyes flit back and forth on her screen, soaking up every inch of his daughter he can. 

Felicity knows she should reassure him, tell him that he went on this mission to protect Mia and he shouldn’t feel guilty, but she knows it will fall on deaf ears. Guilt is Oliver Queen’s middle name. Plus, it’s taking everything she has not to beg him to forget this godforsaken mission and come home. Instead she tells Oliver some of the milestones Mia has reached in the month or so since he’s been gone (she’s been grabbing at her toys, babbling more and more each day, and even though she’s been cranky, as if she can sense the sadness in Felicity, she’s been more giggly than ever, a little ball of sunshine that brightens up her day).

Eventually, Oliver manages to tear his eyes away from Mia and Felicity steers the conversation to what she’s dying to know. “So tell me everything. Start with Earth-2 and the Monitor and then tell me what the kids told you about the future...It sounds like you’ve already made some changes to the future the kids came from. What exactly did you manage to do in just a few days?”

“Um, quite a lot...Let me start at the beginning…”

Felicity is shocked to hear about Earth-2 and the incriminating evidence about the Monitor Oliver and Thea found in Nanda Parbat. But that’s nothing compared to how her heart drops as Oliver tells her everything he knows about the future. How horrible and corrupt Star City is; how JJ grows up evil and murders Zoe. Tears fill her eyes again as Oliver tells her that he disappears in the crisis, she raises Mia alone in Bloomfield and has Nyssa train her, and that William doesn’t see her or find out he has a sister until 2040. She starts to cry in earnest when she sees that Oliver is also sobbing quietly. He tries to keep himself composed as he finishes telling her about what happened with Deathstroke over the past week, but now that everything is out in the open she can tell how devastated he is.

“Oliver,  _ no _ ,” Felicity weeps, “That is  _ not _ the future we fought for. And things could still change. You said it yourself, so much has changed by them being here.” She wraps her free arm more tightly around Mia; she hates to imagine the future Oliver is describing is what waits for her. Being abandoned by her own father was the worst thing that happened to her as a child and had huge repercussions throughout her life. She can’t fathom having it happen to her own daughter. 

“I don’t know how this whole time-travel thing works. I know that whenever Barry tried to change time, it was normally changed for the worst. I can’t tempt fate like that. I know it isn’t the future we wanted, but if my death or disappearance means you and our kids get to live, I’d make the same choice a million times.”

Felicity wishes her husband wasn’t such a self-sacrificing idiot, but then again, that was one of the main reasons she fell in love with him. “What, um, what about me? In the future, am I still…?” She can’t bring herself to finish the question.

Oliver takes a deep breath. “I, uh, it’s not so clear. The kids say that you left a few months ago in their time. They think you went to find me.”

“So you’re not dead, then?”

“I don’t know. Whatever happens to me, I’m not around to raise our children, so...I might as well be. At least I know so I can try and take advantage of the time I do have with this version of the kids. And you promised me that you would find me and I believe you, so I guess we’re out there together somewhere in the universe…”

“That’s not, that’s not what I meant, that’s not  _ good enough, _ Oliver. So we’re separated for over twenty years, the kids grow up apart and then I just leave them to find you and never come back? I refuse to believe that’s our future. I mean, I know it  _ could _ happen and if it does at least we’re together, but I need you to...I need you to promise me, Oliver, that you’ll fight to  _ live _ , not to die. You can’t just accept that this is your fate. As soon as we hang up I’m going to contact Team Flash and the Legends and we are going to figure this out. The future hasn’t happened yet and until it does, I  _ need  _ you to  _ fight  _ to come back to us!” She’s almost hysterical now and she’s honestly shocked that she hasn’t woken the baby with her pleas.

“Okay, shh, Felicity, it’s okay, baby, I promise,” Oliver soothes, “I’m not running towards my death, I swear. And I will do whatever I can to try and make it home to you, but I think we both need to be prepared for what might happen... Although you’re right, it seems we already made some changes to the timeline. And I don't know if we really changed anything permanently, but there are some things we should at least  _ try _ to change. First of all -”

“ -William.” She can't really fathom a future in which she's not in his life, with or without Oliver. But truth be told, in the back of her mind, on days she lets her thoughts go to those dark places, she wonders if it wouldn't be safer for William to stay where he is, without the threat of the Queen name. Now, however, she knows what must be done.

“Yes. You always know what I’m thinking. If I’m not around - I at least want him to still get to see you, to know his  _ sister _ .”

"I'll make sure of it, Oliver, I promise." Felicity feels a pang of guilt and strangely wishes she could see her adult son, to apologize for something she hasn't done yet. "I wish I could be there with you, I wish I could meet them." She echoes her sentiments from earlier.

“I miss you  _ so _ much,” Oliver breathes, and Felicity lets all the love he is conveying to her in that one emphasized syllable wash over her, “And I wish you could be here with us right now too. But I think we’re each where we’re supposed to be. You’re protecting Mia...you heard what the Monitor said. Even if we can’t completely trust him, I know what he said was true - the universe needs her. And I can see why.”

“Tell me more about her, Oliver...please, about both of them,” Felicity understands everything Oliver is saying and knows it makes sense for them to be apart right now, but she aches with the pain of being separated from the rest of her family and  _ needs _ to know more.

“Well,” Oliver complies with a wistful smile on his face, “In the future, Mia and William take over Team Arrow. Mia is basically the Green Arrow - she’s got a suit and bow and everything and there’s a good chance she could take me in a fight. She almost tried to the other day but I wouldn’t let her. I’m  _ pretty _ sure she made a living cage fighting once she left home -”

“Excuse me!” Felicity interjects, “I would  _ never _ -”

“I don’t think she gave you much choice,” Oliver laughs and Felicity’s heart breaks even more - this is the future he deserves, raising their children and laughing over their antics. “It  _ terrifies _ me seeing her out in the field but I’m not really in the position to tell her what to do and she can really hold her own. Seeing her with a bow and arrow - it’s almost  _ majestic _ . Oh, and she also does that thing you do, honey, where you’re always sitting on random surfaces instead of chairs, like the counter or our tiny coffee table. She cares a lot about William, which is amazing to see since they only met recently. And she and Digg’s future son, Connor, seem to have a close relationship. She looks and talks and curses just like you but I think she has a lot of my personality. She’s...hesitant and reserved, and rightfully angry at me, which hurts a lot more than I thought it would...but I think I’m starting to get somewhere with her.”

Felicity smiles reassuringly at her husband, “I’m sure you’re doing amazing for someone who is dealing with the grown-woman version of their three-month-old daughter they had to leave in order to save the universe, Oliver. And I’m sure she loves you.”

“Thanks,” Oliver sighs, “It hasn’t been easy. William, on the other hand, has been so amazing. He’s totally taken on your role on the team, in more ways than one. He’s a mogul, did I mention?”

“You did, I’m so proud of him.”

“Yeah, so he runs his own empire, he’s pretty much Overwatch, and he also gives amazing pep talks. I mean, you should have heard the lecture he gave me about trying harder with him and Mia. He’s clearly the glue holding his team together, just like you. He still likes my Monte Cristos, he was just raving about them to Mia. Oh, and he says he doesn’t want kids but I don’t think it’s too late to convince him.” Oliver states with dead seriousness. 

“Just had a baby and you’re already thinking about grandchildren?” Felicity teases.

“I’ve been thinking a lot about...my legacy, I guess. And my own parents. If I don’t get to see our kids grow up, I want them to get to know me, the real me, and not just through your stories. I don’t know who sent them here or why but I think it’s nothing short of a gift.”

The mood is somber once again.

“Thank you for telling me about them.”

“Of course. Actually now that I think about it, there’s no reason why you shouldn’t be able to talk to them. They’re sleeping now but maybe in the morning or on our flight to Russia…”

“I’d love that. We should still try and keep communication to a minimum, but it’s been too hard to not hear your voice or see your face…”

“I know, I hate it too. But it’s worth it. For Mia.”

“For Mia,” Felicity echoes. 

“Do you think...I mean, is she...I don’t want to wake her, but do you think I could talk to her?”

“To...baby Mia?” Felicity asks, still marveling at the fact they actually have to make that distinction now.

“Yeah…” Oliver sounds anxious, as if he doesn’t feel he has the right to ask anymore, “It’s just, the Mia I have here doesn’t always let me talk to her so I just thought…”

And suddenly, Felicity feels the baby wriggling around, trying to escape the confines of the baby sling. Mia blinks her eyes open sleepily and looks around, as if searching for the source of her name being said.

“Oh, speak of the devil!” Felicity exclaims, “Look who just woke up and wants in on the action. Hold on a second, hon, of course you can talk to her.” She places her phone down so she can free Mia, places a kiss on her soft head, and turns her so she is facing front. She picks up her phone again and is met with a wide-eyed, excited Oliver.

“Hi, baby,” he gushes, “Hi Mia-Bia, it’s daddy...I miss you so much and I love you more than words can express…”

Felicity settles more comfortably in the armchair, inhaling the scent of her husband that still lingers, mixed with the sweet new-baby smell of her little girl. She tries to forget for a moment the crisis that looms, the threat of death given to her husband and the depressing future that awaits her and her children. She is going to fight this with all she has, and at the very least, if she fails, she’ll know she had given it her all and that Oliver will be waiting for her somewhere at the end. Instead, she focuses on her husband’s voice and her daughter’s smiles and giggles as she listens to her daddy coo and tell her how much he loves her and how he knows she’ll grow up to be as beautiful and as smart as her mother.

  
  


**Author's Note:**

> Thank you so much for reading, would love to hear what you thought!!!


End file.
